


Rubies and Gold

by Atalan



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Gen, Post-Series, pgsm - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-19
Updated: 2006-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 01:48:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1625078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atalan/pseuds/Atalan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The promise of a normal life stretches out before them, but there is one thing that must be laid to rest before something new can begin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rubies and Gold

**Author's Note:**

> With thanks to Lizly for reading this through at the eleventh hour. :)
> 
> Written for Cristin Anne

 

 

Not even a month after Usagi's return, they got into a fight that almost ended their friendship.

It started as a friendly coffee in an expensive hotel cafe, the kind where the serving staff were far too polite to admit to recognising Minako, and the patrons uninterested in anything but their own affairs. Rei was surprised she'd found time to come, and Minako seemed genuinely pleased to see her, and for the first fifteen minutes Rei had honestly enjoyed the conversation.

But then, of course, she had brought up the reason she'd called Minako in the first place, and Minako hadn't taken it well. She felt fine, she'd said. The headaches and the dizziness had disappeared like a bad dream - and she didn't even have those any more, now the battle was over.

Rei wished the same was true for her. Far too often in the last few weeks she had woken with Minako's name on her lips and tears drying on her cheeks.

She had pushed, and Minako had resisted, and Rei had become more insistent, and somehow the conversation had become an argument without Rei making the decision to turn it into one. Minako had said that she could not simply demand a brain scan for no reason, and Rei had pointed out that if anyone could, Aino Minako could. Then Minako had said it could damage her career, and Rei had told her to forget her career, it wasn't important, and Minako had gone cold and distant and wondered, in that case, why Rei had gone to so much effort to stop her quitting.

The situation might still have been salvageable if Rei hadn't let her anger get the better of her for one fatal moment.

"Then don't ask for a scan out of the blue! Fake the symptoms - it's not like you could slip up on the details--"

Minako had turned white at the exact moment that Rei had realised what she was saying and stopped in horror. It was too late, however - Minako had snatched at her gloves with one hand and her bag with the other, standing up so fast that her chair tottered backwards and threatened to fall.

"Minako--"

"I can't believe you would even suggest that."

"Wait." Rei had gestured helplessly at the uneaten cake, the half-drunk coffee, as she'd tried to find the words to apologise. "You haven't..."

"Oh, don't worry," Minako had said coldly. "I'll pay the bill. For both of us."

After that, they hadn't spoken for almost six weeks.

*

Rei had never bothered with popular music or the kind of television Usagi loved to watch, but after a while she started paying attention whenever she caught Minako's name on the radio. She even turned on the Saturday night talk shows, grimacing at their silliness and putting up with the giggling hostesses until they got to the weekly roundup of the hottest stars. Once or twice she saw Minako giving an interview. She seemed relaxed and confident each time, which was a far cry from Rei's state of mind after turning off the television. Her archery targets began to look rather the worse for wear, and once she even split an arrow by firing another one straight into its shaft.

When Usagi called, Rei could tell she was close to panic.

"Have you heard? About Minako-chan?"

For a terrible heartbeat, Rei thought the worst. It was not as bad as Artemis's breaking voice had been, not as final as his words then, but she grabbed for the wall to support herself before answering, her own voice sounding strange in her ears.

"What is it?"

"Everyone's saying she's sick!" Usagi wailed the words. "It's all over the fansites! Someone said she fainted in rehearsal! Rei-chan, it can't be the same as before, can it? The crystal fixed it all! It can't be the same - can it?" A pause, a hitch in her breath. "She would have told us, wouldn't she?"

"Of course she would," Rei said with an absolute certainty she did not feel. "I'm sure it's just a rumour. I'm sure nothing's wrong."

"Really?"

"Really. Why don't you ask her, if you're worried?"

She regretted that as soon as she said it, before if it was true then Minako would undoubtedly lie, and it would break Usagi's heart when she found out, but the girl on the other end of the phone had already seized upon the idea with amazed enthusiasm.

"You're right, Rei-chan! I always forget I can call her now. Isn't it strange, after everything, that she's still an idol, and someone like me can call her up and talk?"

Rei would never remember afterwards what it was she said to end the conversation, only that later she sat before the sacred fire for a long time, praying. When she finally slept that night, she dreamed she was chasing Minako through endless crystal hallways where the reflections seemed to have a life of their own.

*

She arrived not long after the shrine opened for the day. Rei was sweeping at the time, but she stopped and watched silently as the other girl approached.

Minako did not speak, only reached into her bag and took out an envelope. From the envelope she removed several sheets of paper, which she unfolded and held out to Rei.

Rei found herself looking at a medical report. She skimmed the details, her eyes flying to the conclusion:

_All results negative._

"Usagi called me yesterday," said Minako. "She heard about my 'fainting' spell. She was so worried, I had to tell her I faked it. It had better not get out to the media."

"Oh," said Rei.

"I hope you know," continued Minako, "that they've decided the symptoms are from the stress of my life as an idol, and my manager has ordered me to take a break."

"I'm so glad."

"You are?"

"That you're alright?" Rei finally met her eyes, hoping Minako wouldn't notice her hands were shaking. "Of course I am."

"Oh." Minako took the report back from her and stared at it for a moment, before folding it up and putting it back in her bag. Then the tiniest beginnings of a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "So am I."

*

Usagi had talked continuously the whole way there on the plane, but when they reached the hotel she fell into an awed silence. Rei, watching Minako out of the corner of her eye, had seen how much the reaction pleased her. Rei wondered if she'd enjoyed the perks of her lifestyle nearly as much before she met Usagi and the others. Ami and Makoto had been similarly stunned, but Naru, who had been quiet and awkward in the presence of her idol up until now, had turned to Minako with wide eyes.

"You do this sort of thing all the time?"

"Actually," Minako had said, with a half-laugh as nervous as Naru's voice, "this is the first time I've been on holiday since I passed the audition."

Later, in the room that they had somehow wound up sharing, Rei watched Minako go through the ritual of removing her makeup. She was surprised by the difference it made - Minako without the mask looked younger, livelier and somehow more approachable.

"You could leave it off tomorrow, you know."

Minako met her eyes in the mirror, her expression startled.

"There shouldn't be any cameras, with all the precautions your manager took," Rei pressed on. "And Usagi wants to go swimming, anyway. Why bother?"

Minako looked at the cotton wool pad in her hand and the bottles lined up neatly on the dresser.

"I used to take it all into the hospital with me," she said. "I couldn't risk anyone seeing me without it, not when so many people were trying to get in with cameras."

She swivelled on the stool and threw the cotton wool across the room. It landed square in the wastepaper bin. The smile that came onto her face was mischievous as she looked over at Rei.

"I like it, you know," she said. "All of it. The makeup and the costumes and the image. It's fun. It's like playing dress-up with the best toys in the world."

Rei tried to imagine it, couldn't, shook her head and shrugged.

"It would drive me crazy," she said.

"It's a pity. Mars Reiko-san could take the world by storm if she wanted."

Minako rose from the stool, smoothed down her pyjama top, and surveyed herself critically in the mirror.

"But if we're swimming, I'll leave it off tomorrow."

*

The second time Minako showed up at the shrine unannounced, Rei was in her room working on a maths equation. The first she knew of it was when her door slid open and Minako stormed in and dumped an extremely heavy-looking sports bag in the middle of her desk.

"What--?"

"This is your fault."

Rei stared at Minako, stared at the bag, and then looked back at Minako for some sort of clue.

"My manager has decided that since the holiday did me 'a world of good', I should try to lead a more normal life from now on," said Minako. Her words were bad-tempered, but in a childish sort of way that Rei had never heard from her. "He wants me to go back to school."

Rei glanced sideways at the protruding corner of her maths homework, and felt a twinge of sympathy.

"No more private tutors letting you off when you've got a concert coming up, then."

"No." Minako leaned over her, her hair brushing against Rei's cheek before she could lean back, and unzipped the sports bag. "The media found out two days ago."

She upended the back on Rei's desk. Brochures and leaflets spilled out, some glossy and colourful, some hastily handmade and photocopied, all expounding on the virtues of their high school versus everyone else's. Several of them came with personal notes addressed to Minako. The pile was so large Rei wondered that the desk wasn't creaking from the weight of it.

"I'm supposed to choose a school out of this lot," said Minako. The scowl had given way to resignation and a touch of amusement. "And you're going to help, since you started it."

"I didn't start it," Rei protested.

"Yes you did." Minako sat down on a cushion and picked up the topmost brochure. "You made me do it."

"I didn't make you--"

"You told me to."

Rei wavered between irritation and a reluctance to start talking about this again. Irritation won out.

"And if I told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?"

Minako flipped absently through the pages of _Mugen Gakuen_ 's glossy publication.

"Maybe." She looked up and half-smiled. "If I thought you were right."

_\- owari -_

 


End file.
